Indium chloride bone marrow scintigraphy for hepatic myelolipoma: A case report

BACKGROUND As hepatic myelolipoma is rarely encountered,its radiological diagnosis using ultrasonography(US),computed tomography(CT),and magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)is challenging.Hepatic myelolipoma is similar to fat-contained hepatic lesions seen in hepatocellular carcinoma and angiomyolipoma.Therefore,further development of techniques to diagnose hepatic myelolipoma is warranted.CASE SUMMARY A 44-year-old obese man was found to have a hepatic lesion during his medical checkup.The lesion was 50 mm×57 mm in size and was detected in segment 8(S8)of the liver by US.The patient was diagnosed with hepatic lesion 20 years ago,but it was left unresolved.The patient had no symptoms,liver dysfunction,hepatitis virus antibody,or tumor marker elevation.Plain CT showed a welldefined lesion in S8 of the liver.The central and peripheral areas of the lesion primarily exhibited fat density and hypodensity,respectively.MRI revealed a capsule-like structure.Biopsy was performed to address the probability of hepatocellular carcinoma.The lesion was pathologically confirmed as a myelolipoma.Bone marrow scintigraphy performed using 111InCl3 revealed accumulation of the radiopharmaceutical in the soft tissue component,except in the fat-dominant part of the tumor,as well as in the surrounding liver parenchyma due to the presence of reticuloendothelial cells in the liver.CONCLUSION This is the first report on the diagnosis of hepatic myelolipoma using 111InCl3 scintigraphy.The effectiveness of bone marrow scintigraphy for diagnosing hepatic myelolipoma might be limited.As radiopharmaceuticals accumulate in both hematopoietic and reticuloendothelial cells,the accumulation of radiopharmaceuticals in the lesion is obscure.

Diagnostic efficacy of gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI for hepatocellular carcinoma and dysplastic nodule

AIM:To evaluate the relationship between the signal intensity of hepatobiliary phase images on gadoxetic acid-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)and histological grade.METHODS:Fifty-nine patients with 82 hepatocellular lesions were evaluated retrospectively.Hepatobiliary phase images on gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI were classified into 3 groups:low,iso or high.Angiographyassisted computed tomography(CT)findings were also classified into 3 groups:CT during arterial portography,and CT hepatic arteriography:A:iso,iso or low;B:slightly low,iso or low;;and C:low,high.We correlated angiography-assisted CT,hepatobiliary phase findings during gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI and histological grades.Furthermore,correlations between MRI findings and histological grade for each hemodynamic pattern were performed.Correlations among radiologicaland pathological findings were statistically evaluated using the chi-square test and Fisher's exact test.RESULTS:There was a significant correlation between histological grade and hemodynamic pattern(P<0.05).There was a significant correlation between histological grade and signal intensity in the hepatobiliary phase(P<0.05)in group A lesions.There was no significant correlation between histological grade and signal intensity in the hepatobiliary phase in group B or C lesions(P>0.05).CONCLUSION:Signal intensity in the hepatobiliary phase correlated with histological grade in the lesions that maintained portal blood flow,but did not correlate in lesions that showed decreased or defective portal blood flow.

Radiologic-pathologic correlation of three-dimensional shear-wave elastographic findings in assessing the liver ablation volume after radiofrequency ablation

AIM: To evaluate the usefulness of three-dimensional(3D) shear-wave elastography(SWE) in assessing the liver ablation volume after radiofrequency(RF) ablation.METHODS: RF ablation was performed in vivo in 10 rat livers using a 15-gauge expandable RF needle. 3D SWE as well as B-mode ultrasound(US) were performed 15 min after ablation. The acquired 3D volume data were rendered as multislice images(interslice distance: 1.10 mm), and the estimated ablation volumes were calculated. The 3D SWE findings were compared against digitized photographs of gross pathological and histopathological specimens of the livers obtained in the same sectional planes as the 3D SWE multislice images. The ablation volumes were also estimated by gross pathological examination of the livers, and theresults were then compared with those obtained by 3D SWE.RESULTS: In B-mode US images, the ablation zone appeared as a hypoechoic area with a peripheral hyperechoic rim; however, the findings were too indistinct to be useful for estimating the ablation area. 3D SWE depicted the ablation area and volume more clearly. In the images showing the largest ablation area, the mean kPa values of the peripheral rim, central zone, and nonablated zone were 13.1 ± 1.5 kPa, 59.1 ± 21.9 kPa, and 4.3 ± 0.8 kPa, respectively. The ablation volumes depicted by 3D SWE correlated well with those estimated from gross pathological examination(r2 = 0.9305, P = 0.00001). The congestion and diapedesis of red blood cells observed in histopathological examination were greater in the peripheral rim of the ablation zone than in the central zone.CONCLUSION: 3D SWE outperforms B-mode US in delineating ablated areas in the liver and is therefore more reliable for spatially delineating thermal lesions created by RF ablation.

Computer-aided diagnosis for contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the liver

Computer-aided diagnosis(CAD) has become one of the major research subjects in medical imaging and diagnostic radiology.The basic concept of CAD is to provide computer output as a second opinion to assist radiologists' image interpretations by improving the accuracy and consistency of radiologic diagnosis and also by reducing the image-reading time.To date,research on CAD in ultrasound(US)-based diagnosis has been carried out mostly for breast lesions and has been limited in the fields of gastroenterology and hepatology,with most studies being conducted using B-mode US images.Two CAD schemes with contrast-enhanced US(CEUS) that are used in classifying focal liver lesions(FLLs) as liver metastasis,hemangioma,or three histologically differentiated types of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) are introduced in this article:one is based on physicians' subjective pattern classifications(subjective analysis) and the other is a computerized scheme for classification of FLLs(quantitative analysis).Classification accuracies for FLLs for each CAD scheme were 84.8% and 88.5% for metastasis,93.3% and 93.8% for hemangioma,and 98.6% and 86.9% for all HCCs,respectively.In addition,the classification accuracies for histologic differentiation of HCCs were 65.2% and 79.2% for well-differentiated HCCs,41.7% and 50.0% for moderately differentiated HCCs,and 80.0% and 77.8% for poorly differentiated HCCs,respectively.There are a number of issues concerning the clinical application of CAD for CEUS,however,it is likely that CAD for CEUS of the liver will make great progress in the future.